…Adding… In reading the opinion, Judge Pallmeyer takes several not so subtle swipes at Jim Thompson, Ryan’s lead attorney. Thompson successfully prosecuted former Gov. Otto Kerner in what is considered the first honest services fraud case and Pallmeyer relies heavily on that case in her opinion.

As the case law cited by the Supreme Court reflects, a showing of bribery need not include direct quid pro quo exchange; two of the three cases cited by the Court as examples of honest services bribery rest on a “stream of benefits” bribery theory.

…Sill More… Pallmeyer concluded that two jury instructions were in error, in light of the Skilling decision. One involved conflict of interest, the other involved violations of state law. However, Pallmeyer wrote she was “satisfied that the instructional errors identified above were harmless”

And in the end…

The court need not dwell on the appropriate standard for release of a convicted prisoner. In today’s ruling, Ryan’s § 2255 petition is dismissed on the merits and his conviction is upheld on all counts. Under any legitimate standard, this context is not appropriate for the “very sparing” exercise of the court’s power to set bail. Ryan’s motion for release is denied.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed and we do expect we will appeal,” said attorney Albert Alschuler, who argued on Ryan’s behalf in a recent hearing before Pallmeyer.

Alschuler said he was still reading the ruling, but said the team would have to file a case before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals before asking for bond.

The 76-year-old former governor has served three years and one month of his 6 1/2-year prison sentence for corruption. Ryan, who is scheduled to be released in 2013, is being held at a federal prison camp in Terre Haute, Ind.

[ *** End Of Updates 1-3 *** ]

* Tuesday will probably not be a slow news day. The judge overseeing George Ryan’s motion to be set free will reportedly make her decision known by noon today…

Former governor George Ryan will learn Tuesday if he will be released from prison early and get to be with his ailing wife in her final months.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer is expected to issue her ruling George H. Ryan, Sr. v. United States of America, Case No. 10 C 5512, by noon Tuesday. Ryan, 76, has served less than half of his six-and-a-half-year sentence for racketeering, tax fraud, conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Ryan’s attorney– former governor Jim Thompson– argues Ryan’s sentence should be reduced to time served due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on the ‘honest services’ law.

Also, Mrs. Ryan claims she has three to six months to live after doctors found cancer. So the attorneys are attempting to use that to at least get the guy sprung on bail for a while.

“Personally, I think that Gov. George Ryan should complete his sentence, in prison. I know it’s a very sad situation if his wife is in very poor health,” Quinn said. “You know he was sentenced by a jury, twelve men and women, good and true and they, well, they convicted him of a crime and a judge issued the sentence and it should be carried out. It’s, I think, the way to go.”

Quinn says he will turn down Jesse Jackson’s request to lobby President Obama to free Ryan because Ryan’s wife, Lura Lynn, is dying.

This case is about a whole lot more than Ryan’s wife. It’s about the greatly changed status of the honest services fraud laws by the US Supreme Court. Quinn is just pandering here.

* And the hearing officer in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago residency case will make his decision sometime today as well…

Hearing officer Joe Morris, the bow-tied conservative Republican who presided over marathon hearings in the case, is expected to make his recommendation to the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners as early as Tuesday.

The three-member election board then will decide Thursday whether to uphold or overturn Morris. That will be followed by a court challenge that’s almost certain to end with the Illinois Supreme Court.

*** UPDATE 4 - 5:30 pm *** The Chicago elections board has just notified reporters that the hearing officer in the Rahm Emanuel residency case won’t turn in his decision until tomorrow, perhaps by midday.

Maybe we should be reviewing all the criminal cases, federal or otherwise, where folk have hard luck stories of family dying or losing their homes, etc. We should consider letting them out of prison, too, don’t you think?

NOT.

Rich, powerful, influential and/or connected convicts should do the same time as the rest of the jamokes who don’t have Big Jim Thompson on their side. I have sympathy for anyone who is ill and without close family nearby. I could make statements about Lura Lynn’s possible knowledge of the crimes and how that might make her seem less sympathetic. Nonetheless, her plight is sad. She has lost the financial support from GRs pension, etc.

I agree that his wife’s illness should not, as a legal matter, have any bearing on his release. As DD said, he is certainly not the only person in prison right now who has a family member with only a limited amount of time left and who will almost certainly be gone long before he or she is out of prison.

I don’t think that’s really the issue here, though. As Rich pointed out, and as the article mentions, the real issue is whether the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the honest services law that Ryan was ultimately found guilty under affects his sentence - and I would say it does (you know, if I were queen and my opinion on that mattered!).

Lura Lynn’s illness is just a side argument to attempt to make him more sympathetic with the court - and it can be argued whether or not that was even a good idea. For whatever reason, however, that’s the angle that’s getting all the press as if it’s the only one being made.

My heart goes out to Lura Lynn. I am not heartless; but Gov. George should not receive any treatment different from the rest of those who are convicted of crimes. His was an especially large betrayal to the people. If there is a process available to all convicts, he should be allowed to avail himself of the same process. Otherwise, like any criminal, the family does time with you and suffers with you and that is the result of being a criminal. I hope his wife is allowed to visit him, and whatever else is permitted to all convicts, but he is the last person that should get any special treatment. I hope there are friends, family, church members to support Lura Lynn but if he is freed it is just one more example of different standards for the rich. So what do you think is going to happen?

But Ryan was convicted of MORE than just the honest services counts. Add to that his pathetic qualified “apology” (not to mention how he put the survivors of murder victims through sheer hell during his high profile image-building campaign against the death penalty (remember his panel hearings? His promise not to do blanket commutations? How he broke that promise at a political-rally like event at Northwestern Law School)? As for Sneed, the woman who went with Ryan to Cuba and gushed about Castro without a word about political repression, is it any wonder she never mentions the Willis’ when discussing Ryan?

Those who argue Mr. Ryan should not get special treatment, he is not. As Rich has pointed out the legal argument is a change in the status of the honest services law. This should be the only consideration and frankly my humble opinion it has real merit in granting his release.

Please don’t use the have a heart argument here. The Willis family would perhaps take issue with that, don’t you think? It is a horrible tragedy all around with George Ryan in the middle of it.

OK, we have to accept the honest services issue as being important here. Bring the man back into court and resentence him. Drop 3 years for the honest services issue and resentence him to 6 1/2 years for the rest of the conviction(s). Done.

George Ryan is not responsible for the Willis’ children’s tragedy. He was not driving the truck, nor did he inspect the failed truck assembly. Whatever his role was after the fact –and a great deal of that is at the center for which he was convicted — he had nothing to do with that accident in Wisconsin.

I don’t know how the honest services vs. other counts’ sentances parse out, but news reports at the time said Ryan faced a maximum of 95 years in prison. I suspect the judge’s sentance was a reflection of her overall feeling of how Ryan abused his power rather than a pure mathematical allotment. What hit me particularly hard was the testimony about how he rebuffed whistleblowers who tried to contact him (in fact, in one of those incidents, wasn’t it Laura that the whistleblower (a woman) said she gave a letter to at a dinner? Not certain I’m remembering this correctly though). That showed a higher degree of intent.

We see the same thing with Blago: he’s convicted on one count, and lots of people were noting the top-end of that count, not the average time served. Why? Because when you’re the governor it’s worse. And as I mentioned, I don’t think Ryan has displayed any real contrition.

White collar crime has tangible injuries. If being coldhearted towards Ryan deters one pol with similar power, it’s worth the sacrifice of Laura Ryan.

It would be interesting for the lawyers among you, who are also familiar with Ryan’s case weigh in here. In a “normal” case, if two counts of a six (I think it was) count indictment falls apart, how does that affect a case and subsequent sentence?

It seems that some large fraction of Ryan’s case revolved around the theft of services count, and that the lying to the Feds count is the normal one the Feds hang on to most cases (and of which we would probably ALL be convicted because of our imperfect memories).

Knome: The argument is that Ryan is a but-for cause: his corruption enabled the incompetent driver and disrepaired truck. Your argument is that a pol bears no responsibility as long as he doesn’t have actual knowledge of the people the illegal licenses are going to and “hopes for the best.” Isn’t it reasonably forseeable that the people who would pay for a license are the ones who can’t get one the legal way, and that for at least some of them there’s a good reason for that?

I don’t know if Ryan should be realeased or not, but it is a sad story all around. It breaks my heart to think of Mrs. Ryan spending her last months without her husband, but as many others pointed out, and is not lost on me, is that many other inmates are in similar positions.

I think the judge made the right decision and I believe Lura Lynn’s illness was irrelevant to her conclusions.
Just curious, will Dick Durbin try to get Obama to commute Ryan’s sentence or even pardon him? He did try to get a pardon from Bush before he left office.

Just another example of federal judges kowtowing to federal prosecutors and media scrutiny.If Congress makes a law, someone is indicted and convicted on that law, serves jail time based on being convicted on those crimes, the SC then says some of the laws the person was convicted on have changed, but the person has already served 3 1/2 years based on the other crimes, how can that person not have not have served his/her debt to society? At what point does justice turn into persecution?

Judge Pallmeyer has apparently now rejected the arguments that any part of Ryan’s conviction should be vacated. But even if she hadn’t, the number of counts of conviction don’t matter.

The theory of federal sentencing is that a defendant should be sentenced for the conduct he committed, and not just the conduct of which he is convicted. Even conduct that formed the basis of counts where a jury acquitted the defendant can be considered by the sentencing judge if she believes, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the defendant committed the conduct. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is required for conviction; proof of a crime by a preponderance can be relied on for sentencing.

George Ryan stole the state’s money and gave it to his buddies, by fraud, in exchange for a string of benefits. He was sentenced to 6 1/2 years. Even if a count or two had been tossed, there was no reason to change the sentence.

(The fact that a family member is dying is not a basis for a federal judge to reduce a sentence. The judge doesn’t have that power, unless a conviction is vacated and there is a resentencing for some other reason.)

So Judge Pallmeyer took “several not so subtle swipes” at Jim Thompson in the opinion? I’ve read the opinion, and didn’t see his name once, and only once referred to indirectly as “a previous U.S. Attorney”. Let’s not create drama where there is none . . .

What is it costing us to keep him in prison? Is he a danger to society? He lost everything, give him probation for the rest of his sentence and let the man be with his wife. I am sure there are violent criminals that could use his cell.

Release him on bail and put an ankle bracelet on him. There’s no reason for him to remain in jail based upon the evidence, the crime, and the new case law. Other than her slamming of Big Jim, Pallmeyer is incorrect in her ruling, IMHO, but it is a close call.

Everyone, including George Ryan, is entitled to legal defense, but Jim Thompson by making Ryan’s case his own personal cause celebre has become the absolute spokesperson for political corruption in Illinois. A sad decline from his days as a corruption busting D.A.

You could say that all white collar criminals should get probation. They’re not (usually) dangers to society, in the sense that they won’t go stick up anybody with a gun. And most won’t do it again.

But individual rehabilitation and (what’s called in the jargon) specific deterrence aren’t the only reasons for sentencing. Punishment and general deterrence — the effect a sentence will have on others — also have a role.

Now, admittedly, sentencing George Ryan didn’t get the message through to Blago. But white collar criminals frequently do take into account the likelihood of going to jail.

Not too much compassion for old George on the web today. Personally, I’d let him out. I think it’s a mistake for Big Jim to be trying this based on the honest services law. It gives the judge a legal out because he was properly tried.

Until every federal prisoner who has an ill family member gets the same get out of jail card the former Gov should remain where he is.

As far as I can tell, Ryan’s sentence was on the light side of what he could have been issued. The removal of the honest services element would likely have made little difference in the length of the sentence issued anyway.

Do the feds practice Illinois’ sentence cut for good behavior? If so he could be set for release soon.

I am perfectly aware that GR was not convicted of the Willis tragedy due to lack of clear connection. That his actions while SoS created an environment in which such a tragedy was likely to occur is something I am also aware of. You also mention his actions after the fact. The behavior of a man who feels guilty of his involvement even if you don’t believe he is culpable.

I was merely commenting re Living in Oklahoma’s comment that we should have a heart for George and Lura Lynn. Apparently, Judge Pallmeyer, a person with much more legal acumen than I has decided that GR is to remain in prison for the balance of his term. BJT will not rest until all legal avenues have been explored, as is his right.

No high horse, sir, just statin’ the facts. If you believe I should shed a tear for GR because of his family’s circumstances, go elsewhere. I hold my elected officials to the same standards I hold others. I am aware that people make poor decisions. I believe that people should bear the consequences of those actions. Thank goodness the Judge believes that, too.

The Court ruled on the law. The plea for mercy should be addressed to the Executive not the Court. It can be properly considered in that framework. If the President chooses to commute the sentenced to time served I would not have a problem. We can all use all the mercy we can get and I will not object if someone else receives it.

One is sympathetic to the Ryans and to all families in this unfortunate situation. The use of Skype and other remote technology should make it possible for the Ryans to spend more face time with each other than has ever been the case in the past. One hopes this is available not only to them but to all prisoners. I think DOC makes limited use of remote visitation by video but not sure about the feds.

Only the President can commute Ryan’s sentence and release him for good. The Bureau of Prisons has the power and discretion to furlough him to attend to his wife. The Judge was ruling on Ryan’s post-conviction legal attempt to vacate or alter his conviction, and Ryan asked her for bail pending that decision. She denied his petition to vacate the conviction, so there was no release. ‘Compassion” was not a proper factor in her legal decision.

Actually, Fed prisoners must serve 85% of their sentence. And it’s true what a commenter said, Ryan’s sentence is VERY near the low end of the range he could have gotten. That, along with the large amount of time between conviction and showing up to prison, sort of means GR got his time off in advance, so to speak.

Belden Ave: When you become the consigliere to the mob some of the slime rubs off on you. Picking a totally corrupt person as his friend says a lot about Thompson’s own moral compass. George Ryan had so much and yet he chose to repeatedly violate the public trust. Such a man is not worthy of the kind of devotion shown by Thompson.

What is the typical first-offender sentence for criminal conspiracy to block an investigation? George certainly did that. While I get Rich’s sympathy for Ryan and I follow his logic about the sentence now being reduced because the Supreme Court ruling negates part of the case, I have to say, our elected politicians have to be held to a more strenuous standard, or we are ALL in deep trouble. The Christian thing may be to furlough him with time served, but pols who violate the public trust should not get easy breaks compared to what no-name citizens get. I would be willing to let him go on parole if three years served is the typical first-offense penalty for someone criminally conspiring to block an investigation, if their name is NOT Ryan.

Please tell me Quinn is kidding with his soap box “Personally, I think that Gov. George Ryan should complete his sentence, in prison. I know it’s a very sad situation if his wife is in very poor health,” Quinn said. “You know he was sentenced by a jury, twelve men and women, good and true and they, well, they convicted him of a crime and a judge issued the sentence and it should be carried out. It’s, I think, the way to go.” This is the same person who allowed early release to so many since his term as govenor, what a hypocrite!!

Let this dying woman have her last wish here on earth! She committed no crime. Can you think for a minute? As she takes her last breath and leaves this earth not seeing her husband IS going to make her death so much more difficult. This is her last wish here on earth. Doesn’t anyone care anymore? How cold hearted has this world turned now-a-days! What did Laura Ryan do wrong? Why is Laura Ryan being tormented like this? Can’t you let her die in peace? Let her see her husband as she dies. All these judges, governors and whom ever has a say so in this matter should try and walk in her shoes! This isn’t about J. Ryan this is about Laura and her last wish! SHAME on all who are doing this harm to this dying woman. She is in so much physcial pain and then add the emontional. Let her die in peace! Let her have her last wish–even people in prision get one last wish before being put to death.This woman did nothing wrong and this makes me sick inside when I hear what’s going on. Mrs.Ryan I pray that somehow someway you will get your last wish. President Obama, PLEASE get yourself involved in this and let this dying woman see her husband. Mr. Ryan is an old man he’s not going to do anything.Put a monitor on him and a guard. This is so wrong! Is anyone listening??? Do this before it’s too late! Where is human compassion? Mrs. Ryan I pray that YOU get your last wish here on earth. God Bless You and I will continue to pray in hope that you will get your last wish here on earth…